I have already stated to you that I have not paid federal income tax or filed a tax return since 1994. And this was no secret anyway, as I sent at least two certified-mail letters to the IRS in that year detailing my questions about the income tax and asking for clarification on the matter. They never responded.
Apparently we need to cover things multiple times around here. So let's cover it again real quick.
I have spent thousands of hours reading the income tax code and its related history. To re-work a tired old construction for my own purposes, I will tell you that I truly have forgotten more about the income tax than your tax attorney will ever know. Turn off the TV. Put down the newspaper. Ignore the helpful income tax pamphlet at the Post Office.
The federal income tax purports to derive its authority to lay a non-apportioned direct tax by way of the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The 16th Amendment does not exist. It was never properly ratified by the several states. This is a publicly known fact. This is not in dispute. The records of the several states have been exhaustively researched by the authors of the book The Law that Never Was. Read it. Secretary of State Philander Knox simply proclaimed the Amendment to be properly ratified in 1913. It was not.
But this is a political question, not a legal one. That is, it has no utility in a courtroom, so it useless to discuss it.
What may be of more utility is point out that various courts have contemplated the 16th Amendment. It was determined that the 16th Amendment placed the income tax into the class into which it inherently belonged, into the class of indirect tax. (A direct tax is like a head tax. It is laid upon a person. An indirect tax is laid upon a process or a transaction, like a sales tax.)
So: Even if we assume that the 16th Amendment exists, we know that it has been determined that all it did was to place the income tax into the class into which it already belonged, into the indirect tax class. Translation, the 16th Amendment didn't change anything. It had no legal effect.
But this argument is of little utility in a court. I don't care about it.
The proper argument is that there is simply no statute. If you care to investigate the income tax --instead of, say, inquiring of the IRS for its opinion on the matter, in the unwise practice of asking the barber if you need a haircut-- you will find that there is simply no statute that states upon whom the income tax is laid.
I guarantee you that you will never, ever, not in a million years ever determine upon whom the tax is laid. That is, you can research the matter until the natural end of the universe and you will never be able to determine if you have to comply with the internal revenue code.
The proper argument to use in a court is this: "Mister Prosecutor, my client wishes to examine the statute in question so that we may prepare his defense."
No statute will be presented. It does not exist.
Where most people go wrong is in filing a tax return at all. Since no statute exists to define the word "taxpayer," one's tax return provides to the IRS the best determination of the filer's tax status that can be gained. The government, obviously, cannot know the business affairs of any particular person as well as the person himself, so when that person signs under penalty of perjury that everything on that form is correct --including his status of taxpayer-- the government assumed that you are subject to the income tax.
Here is your mantra: "Filing a tax return creates the legal nexus between the otherwise unencumbered natural person and the income tax."
Most people go wrong by filing a tax return and cheating. Now they're tax cheats. That is a crime.
It would have been better had they not attested to being a taxpayer at all.
The fail-safe argument for the prosecutor is this: "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, this fat cat over here thinks that he doesn't have to pay the income tax! Well, you folks do, don't you? Do you think that this fat cat should get away with not paying his fair share when you good folks work so hard to shoe your children and feed your babies and keep a roof over your head and still you do your patriotic duty to pay your taxes?"
Just one problem: according to the Grace Commission, not a single nickel in personal income tax goes to fund government operations. It all goes directly overseas to offshore banks.
It's a scam.
I am often accused of being some kind of scofflaw. Quite the contrary: I identify the law to the best of my good-faith ability and I follow it.
Here is a video called America: Freedom to Fascism." In it, the film's maker documents the complete fraud that is the income tax. You will even see interviews with IRS agents who went looking for the statute and could not find it. They brought their questions to their superiors and got fired for their trouble. They now no longer pay income tax.
